Recently, we had an opportunity to put three amazing massage product manufacturers to the test: Theragun, SNAILAX, and TimTam.
Meet Theragun Elite
Theragun is a pretty well known brand in the massage ‘gun‘ market. They offer a number of different models, however we opted to review their Elite version for a number of reasons but the most important ones are the fact that the Elite is designed to be quieter than most and it’s lightweight. We also love that it comes in both black and white.
The Theragun Elite offers powerful deep muscle treatment, in an ultra-quiet smart percussive therapy device with advanced sound insulation. Let’s look at some of its features.
QuietForce Technology QX65
We were excited about the idea of a quieter motor especially since we tend to use the massage guns for relaxing at night after a long day. Their QuietForce technology sound insulation in the QX65 model delivers up to 40 pounds of additional no-stall force while running quieter than a standard electric toothbrush. Our experience can confirm this — it’s definitely quieter than other massagers we‘ve used over the years.
The Therabody app integrates with Apple Health and Google Fit and learns from your behaviors to suggest guided routines that can be sent to your device via Bluetooth. For example, if you‘ve just finished an intense spin class or got off a long flight, the app might suggest a tailored leg and foot recovery routine.
Some of their research shows that their massage guns reach 60% deeper into muscles than many other average massagers in its category. There’s a OLED screen with a force meter that displays your speed and you can toggle up to 3 pre-set treatments.
The Theragun Elite comes with a very sturdy carrying case that makes it easily portable and great for travel. It also comes with five different attachments to help with different parts of the body. They include the dampener, the standard ball, the wedge, the thumb and something they call the cone.
The dampener is used for tender or bony areas, the standard ball is great for small and large muscle groups, the wedge is great for shoulder blades and your IT band. The thumb is great for trigger points and your lower back whereas the the cone is great to pinpoint muscles including hands and feet.
There’s also five built-in speeds (1750, 1900, 2100, 2200, 2400 percussions per minute) and app–controlled customizable speed range (any speed between 1750-2400 percussions per minute). Impressive right? Especially with the quiet technology built in.
It’s also very lightweight, at only around 2.2 pounds, a feature we love especially for women. As for the battery life? It will run for 120 minutes and takes around 80 minutes to charge it back up to capacity.
Two thumbs up. We love our experience so far. You can find out more and order from their website.
Meet SNAILAX Full Body Massager
There are plenty of massager products on the market, but what we really love about the SNAILAX Full Body Massager with Air Compress 236 is its combination of flexibility, portability, heat and adjustability, especially for the neck area. Let’s take a deeper look at some of their features.
Full Back Massager with Heat
Heat may not seem like an important add-on but not all massager products (hand-held or chairs) include heat automatically. It’s often an add-on in one of their pro versions and we think, highly worth having. In my case, I get sore muscles in and around my neck and lower back after sitting for too long and not stretching enough — the heat factor is a big help for me while I’m working at my desk.
The SNAILAX Massage Chair Pad features 8 upgraded flexible shiatsu rollers to better fit full-back and body curves, that delivers relaxing deep tissue massage for the whole back. The shiatsu nodes with optional infrared Heat therapy helps improve blood flow, and if you’re stiff from not enough stretching, this is a huge godsend.
Adjustable Neck Massager
The chair massager has four shiatsu rotation nodes to provide deep kneading massages for neck and shoulder. My stiffness is more centered in the lower back area, however my neck is often sore too from sitting in the same position for too long.
Although I have an ergonomic office set-up, in a post Covid world, let’s be honest — we’ve all been sitting in front of Zoom and other video conferencing set ups for far too long each day. I love that I can adjust the neck as well as different parts of the back depending on how I’m feeling. The neck shiatsu balls can be adjusted up & down to fit your height and the way your back is designed. The detachable flap allows you to choose a softer or more intense shiatsu massage on the neck and back, another really great feature.
Customized SPOT Massage
For those of you who want to hit just a specific area, the SNAILAX neck and back massager with heat comes with three different massage zones: Upper, Lower and Full Back are included options.
The Spot massage function allows you to target and concentrate on pain areas for pin-point relaxation. BTW, this is such an amazing feature after you‘ve been on three back-to-back video calls and you‘re starting to feel stiff in just one specific area.
Air Massage and Vibration
The seat massager has adjustable air compression massage and vibration seat massage, the first time we‘ve ever experience a feature like this in a massage chair. The air support for the buttocks and lower back relieves your muscles allowing the vibrations to loosen you up, which ultimately is what we all need for our tired and stiff muscles.
Truth be told, it seems all of us are sitting much more. Now that more and more people are working from home and not going to physical meetings (or traveling as much), we all need to pay attention to how we’re sitting and for how long. This particular feature offers 3 levels of air pressure and 3 levels of vibration intensity, so you can tailor it to best meet your best needs.
Seat Cushion
There’s also a massage seat cushion which is not only portable and easy-to-use, but very adaptable. In other words, you can fasten it to an office chair, dining chair or put it on recliner, couch, or sofa as well which is a nice premium feature.
You can get more information on the SNAILAX Full Body Massager 236 on their website.
Meet the TimTam Power Massager Pro
The PowerMassager Pro from TimTam is touted to be most powerful device on the market with a heated tip — again, there’s the heat feature again, which we love. We also love that it has a solid one hour battery life.
Because it’s so powerful, you can use its speed and depth as well as the heat tip to target muscle groups that need recovery the most. In just 30 seconds you can gain the benefits of percussion massage anywhere, anytime. It’s great to use it to massage right after any training or exercise to help reduce lactic acid build up while repairing micro-tears. The result is less soreness and improved recovery times.
They say that give minutes with the PowerMassager Pro is equivalent to spending 30 minutes with a foam roller or professional masseuse.
The PowerMassager Pro it outfitted with Antimicrobial Plastic Surfaces and a 175-degree adjustable head (this is such a great feature btw), which makes it that much easier to use by yourself.
There’s also a bunch of powerful attachments that add another layer (Heat, Vibration) to one of the 5 treatment programs. The LED display provides basic information that also serves as a message center capturing the health of your muscles via the temperature sensor built into the device.
Let’s take a look at some of the features.
One Touch Trigger
Effortlessly apply pressure to your 100% of your body with Multi-Position 175 Degree Articulation & One-Touch Trigger.
Quiet for its Power & Size
Their Pro model operates at 10 db at its lowest speed and for a product of this power and size, they’re doing a great job. The idea is that you can quietly recover in public, at home, the gym, office or even a plane with 50% less noise.
Skin Temperature Sensor
This feature helps to identify the optimum muscle temperature for performance in degrees. We absolutely love their Automated Heat Tip (up to 99.5 degrees) which allows you to go deep into your muscle tissues with heat, allowing your muscles to relax that much easier.
The heat ball attachment which goes up to 99.5 degrees.
Pre-Programmed Settings
There are five pre-programmed settings including; Warm Up, Recovery with Neck & Lumbar specifically designed to combat pain in these areas.
3 Deep Tissue Speed Settings
The product includes 3 different deep tissue speed settings: 1000, 2000 and 2800 strokes per minute.
This weighs in at only 2 pounds and remember it’s cord-free. Their high velocity percussion reduces pain from inflamed muscles allowing you to work them harder than with static pressure. Bravo bravo!
For more information including how to order, be sure to visit their website.
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Note: we are sent products to review but all opinions expressed are entirely our own.
Renee Blodgett is the founder of We Blog the World. The site combines the magic of an online culture and travel magazine with a global blog network and has contributors from every continent in the world. Having lived in 10 countries and explored nearly 80, she is an avid traveler, and a lover, observer and participant in cultural diversity.
She is also the CEO and founder of Magic Sauce Media, a new media services consultancy focused on viral marketing, social media, branding, events and PR. For over 20 years, she has helped companies from 12 countries get traction in the market. Known for her global and organic approach to product and corporate launches, Renee practices what she pitches and as an active user of social media, she helps clients navigate digital waters from around the world. Renee has been blogging for over 16 years and regularly writes on her personal blog Down the Avenue, Huffington Post, BlogHer, We Blog the World and other sites. She was ranked #12 Social Media Influencer by Forbes Magazine and is listed as a new media influencer and game changer on various sites and books on the new media revolution. In 2013, she was listed as the 6th most influential woman in social media by Forbes Magazine on a Top 20 List.
Her passion for art, storytelling and photography led to the launch of Magic Sauce Photography, which is a visual extension of her writing, the result of which has led to producing six photo books: Galapagos Islands, London, South Africa, Rome, Urbanization and Ecuador.
Renee is also the co-founder of Traveling Geeks, an initiative that brings entrepreneurs, thought leaders, bloggers, creators, curators and influencers to other countries to share and learn from peers, governments, corporations, and the general public in order to educate, share, evaluate, and promote innovative technologies.
